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Preschool Butterfly Craft-Super Simple!

published on June 21, 2013

About the Blog

WhatToExpect.com supports Word of Mom as a place to share stories and highlight the many perspectives and experiences of pregnancy and parenting. However, the opinions expressed in this section are those of individual writers and do not reflect the views of Heidi Murkoff of the What to Expect brand.

This morning at church we did a super simple preschool butterfly craft that all of the children enjoyed and all their parents were pleased to receive. This preschool butterfly craft was easy enough that a 2 year old child could do most of the "work" by their self.

With spring finally showing its glorious face there is nothing as symbolic of this wondrous time of new life and renewal as the butterfly. That is why the Sunday School teacher chose this preschool butterfly craft and I'm so glad she did!

To make this adorable toddler art project all you need is 3 things: small zip-lock bags, colorful paper, and pipe cleaners.

To begin, you may either cut the paper into small pieces or allow the children to tear or cut the paper into small pieces. The size and shapes of the paper are not important, so let them have at it! If you like, you can keep the colors separated, but we just mixed our colored paper pieces all together in the center of the table. You need enough paper to lightly fill the zip-lock bags.

Next, put the paper into the bags; we let the kids do this on their own of course. When you have the desired amount of paper in each bag, smash it flat, and seal it with as little air left inside as possible.

The final step is to simply gather the paper filled bag in the center (from top to bottom). Put the center of the pipe cleaner to the gathered spot of the bag and wrap it several times to form the "body" of the butterfly. Curl the left over ends of the pipe cleaner around your finger to form little antennae.

I'm using the butterflies the girls made as ornaments on our Easter decorated "Charlie Brown" tree. I am going to attach a tag to each reminding us of the true meaning of Easter, something like "Jesus rose for me", and each of the girls' name and date. Easter is definitely a time and scenario that would be easily relatable to the transformation of a caterpillar to butterfly.

I think this toddler art project could also venture off into so many other directions too! Among some of the simple craft ideas that come to mind using this basic craft is making the butterflies magnets by simply attaching one to the back or you could make several of these and hang them in "mobile" form.

No matter what you choose to do with your preschool butterfly craft, I'm sure you'll be as pleased as the little hands that help you make them!